Reverse Scröwdriver Crafting

Welcome professors, TAs, internet goers and any of the others that may or may not read this blog because I still find it hard to believe there are people other than my professors, TAs and maybe my fellow students who actually read this thing. Today I will be talking about a game that requires skill, cunning and a quick hand (ok well I guess it kinda does) for my Reverse Scrowdriver Crafting quest (remember how I said my class was designed to work like a game, yeah this is it). Now before I begin to complete this quest let me explain quickly what it is exactly. Basically we had to take a game (there's a list of games you can but my TA let me choose one that isn't on the list which was awesome) and change one rule to reflect a new game mechanic. Now originally I was going to tackle something from the list of per-approved games but then during my visit to the most wonderful place in the GTA, Snacks & Lattes (the wonderful board game cafe where they have nutella lattes which are so amazing), I was struck with inspiration mixed with a side of irritation that the change I came up with wasn't already a damn rule in the game.

 

So this game was one of the games we happened to come across in our self-imposed quest to play some games we have never heard of before while screwing each other over (which was oh so satisfying). Now the game we stumbles upon is called Tier auf Tier Das Große Abenteuer (which translates to Animal Upon Animal Balancing Bridge, which to a bunch of 17-21 years is just as inappropriate and funny as hell as it sounds). 

 Now we had never heard of this game before so we thought it might be interesting to try but oh my god the instructions where kinda confusing (at first we only saw the German instructions and none of speak German so we thought we weren't going to get to play this game until we flipped ahead a few to find the English instructions, I blame the fact that we clearly can't read and may or may not have all been sick and either doped up on cold medicine or going through our sugar high that we may or may not acquired with the amount of pop we drank and jelly beans we ate prior to coming to the cafe) until we were smart and figured out that the instructions started one page prior to the one we were looking at then it all made sense. Now the point of the game is to be the first one to stack these animal piece in a series of patterns which are indicated on the cards you get, which is we thought was pretty cool and then we started playing and noticed some flaws in the game rules.

My three friends Ashley, Jose and Marieann while at Snacks & Lattes (btw Jose sucks at this game)

Now in this link here, you can find the pdf of the game rules to read through more thoroughly if you feel like, but I'm going to briefly explain the rules. Now in order to start the game you first have to set up the board. Basically the game gives you 29 animal game pieces which you have to arrange based on the layout in the instructions which you will be able to see in the image below:

Each area of the board is labeled by a symbol; Fire, water, leaf, sunlight and a bridge, which each side of the dice corresponds to along with a question mark. Now when the dice is rolled players can only take animals from the area the dice lands on (the forest, desert, volcano, ocean and bridge) or in the case of the question mark, any area they damn well feel like. Each player is given 3 arrangement assignment cards which must be fulfilled sometime throughout the game either by the actual player or an opposing player (these cards are a secret and are only revealed when you complete the assignment). If players knock over the pyramid during their turn they must take an additional assignment card.

MY RULE CHANGE

Now the rule I thought about changing was the penalty rule since it seemed weird that you still kept your completed arrangement assignment even if the arrangement was ruined by someone knocking over the pyramid. The rule change: if the animal arrangement on your assignment card is disturbed by an accidental fall in the pyramid (falls cannot be intentional) or a piece move by another player, you must complete the arrangement assignment card again rather than keeping the achievement card like in the original rules. This change increases the difficulty of winning the game since it as long as you have a very steady hand and no one knocks over the pyramid it is very easy to win the game (I won this game in less then 10 minutes because I have the steadiest hand ever and can make some of the most impossible arrangement that really should never stay standing). With this change in the rules not only does it make the game less confusing for players since in the original rules there is nothing indicating what happens when you arrangement is broken after you complete the assignment card, but it also make the game more interesting by increasing the player interacting and creating a dynamic player vs player aspect of the game.

While you are playing against others there is no way to interact or interfere with other players except if you accidentally knock over the pyramid and even then that only interferes if you knock over an arrangement another player is currently working on but with the current rules you cannot. In addition this change creates player vs player conflict in the game because this change now allows players to target the winning player and purposely mess with them. While knocking pieces off the pyramid will still result in the current penalty of receiving an additional arrangement assignment card it now also includes the additional potential penalty of losing one of your completed arrangement assignments. I feel this change will change the way the game is played and the way players interacted with each other in the game space.

All in all this game is pretty entertaining, especially if you are a bunch of immature 17-21 years on a sugar rush and you play with someone like my friend Jose who if I remember correctly ended up with close to 8 arrangement assignment cards, though I still wish there was some sort of mechanic that lets you mess with the winning player (even though that was me in the first few minutes) and other players.